False teachings threatening to corrupt the Church forced the leaders to join in councils, where they codified the orthodox teaching of the Bible into creeds received by the Church as faithful distillations of Scriptural truth and as a bulwark against future corruption. Error, heresy, and outright paganism are today common in churches that were once sound. Even many “better” churches have little depth to their teaching and are silent on critical issues of the day, and even in some paganism masquerades as Christianity.

This book is the fruit of the work of hundreds of theologians and Christian leaders working throughout a 37-year period to define and defend the key Biblical points on 24 controversial issues — which would not even be controversial if all believed like Jesus and Paul in the inerrancy of the Bible.

This book states the Bible’s position on 24 controversial issues and explains why each document needed to be written. It offers the global Body of Christ tools for reforming the Church and motivating Christians to live in obedience to Christ and to all commands in the Bible intended for us.

Excerpt:

“We heartily invite all Christians on this planet who desire to live in obedience to the Bible in all areas of life at all times, to form themselves and their local churches into “United Spiritual Armies” at the city and county levels, and to establish a network with other such churches and “spiritual armies” at their state and national levels with the goal of making Christ King of their cities and nation. We invite you to join with us in applying these 24 DOCUMENTS to the life of the Church and in making 2 Cor. 10:5 a reality. By that we mean that together we are called by God to destroy “speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”

About the author:

Dr. Jay Grimstead was born in Bismarck, ND. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Biology in 1957 from Sterling College in Sterling, KS. He graduated from Fuller Seminary in 1961 with a Masters in Theology (ThM) and later received a Doctor of Ministry (DMin) degree. He spent 20 years on staff with Young Life Campaign, a ministry of clubs and camping to evangelize and disciple non-church teenagers.

In 1984 he founded the Coalition on Revival which created the 17 World-view Documents which state the biblical principles for the various spheres of life and the “blueprints for how the Bible applies to the fields of: Law, Government, Economics, Education, Science, the Media & Arts, Medicine, etc.” Under his leadership, COR organized the International Church Council Project in 1992.

In 2004 and 2005 he organized theological committees in Guatemala, San Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama to discuss and defend certain of the 22 Theological Documents of the Church Council Project which had been translated into Spanish. A year later, Dr. Grimstead gathered national leaders from various fields to create the “24 Year Plan to Rebuild America upon the principles of the Bible.”

Dr. Grimstead now lives with his wife, Donna, a registered pharmacist, in Murphys, CA. They have two grown children, Julie and Guy. Dr. Grimstead’s favorite hobbies are mountain climbing and playing jazz and blues on his trumpet.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

God created each one of us with different personalities, talents and abilities. Although none of us are
exactly the same we all have the same purpose in this life: God created every
man, woman, boy and girl to glorify Him.People have
a choice to glorify/honor God or glorify/honor self. To glorify/honor self
is pride. Pride is thinking you are better than you really are. It’s
also thinking that you had something to do with whatever you feel that you are
good at. Pride ignores the truth that God has given us everything we have. Pride is the reason that Satan was kicked out of heaven. He wanted
to be God. God could not allow sin in His presence so Satan was not
allowed to live in heaven any longer. Ever since Satan has been kicked
out of heaven he has done everything he can to keep people from the purpose God
created them for. Satan
doesn’t want people to know how great and awesome the God of this universe is.

As we talk about today's lesson, think about your life. Are you living a life that allows God to be in control and where you please Him or one where you please yourself?Daniel was a Godly man who served King Nebuchadnezzar for many years. When
Nebuchadnezzar died his grandson Belshazzar became king. Belshazzar did
not believe in the true God but instead worshiped many idols. He chose to get wisdom from magicians and
astrologers instead of Daniel.At the time
of our story, Belshazzar is inside Babylon surrounded by walls that were
supposed to protect the people from enemies. Enemies were surrounding
Babylon and certainly Belshazzar knew about this. He wasn’t
afraid. His confidence was in himself. He didn’t think anyone could
climb the high, thick walls of his kingdom. He kept the gates to the city
closed and had everything the people needed to survive inside. They had a
river that ran through the city so there was plenty of water to drink.

Since
Belshazzar wasn’t afraid of the enemies that were surrounding the walls, he
threw a big banquet. He invited 1000 of his important officials. At
this banquet the king and his guests were drinking wine. As Belshazzar
drank wine his mind was not thinking clearly and he came up with an
idea. He commanded that someone go to the treasury where his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar
kept the things that were brought home when he had captured the Jewish people
in Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar’s army had attacked Jerusalem and gone into God’s temple, taking many of the holy items the priests used to worship God. Some of those items that
Nebuchadnezzar took were gold and silver goblets that are used to drink
from. Belshazzar commanded that the goblets be brought to him so that they
could use them at his banquet.

When the
goblets were brought to the king, wine was poured in them and the guests
at the banquet began to toast each other and praise the gods of gold, silver,
bronze, iron, wood and stone. As Belshazzar and his guests were praising
their false gods with these holy items, fingers of a human hand appeared and
wrote a message on the wall near the lamp stand. Belshazzar froze as he
watched this hand write a message on his palace wall. What he saw frightened
him.

In a loud
voice he cried out, “Send for my magicians and astrologers!”

When his
‘wise men’ were brought before him he said, “Whoever can tell me what this
message on my wall says, I will clothe you in purple and have a gold chain
placed around your neck. You will be promoted to the third highest ruler
in my kingdom.”

Belshazzar’s
wise men went over to the wall and studied the writing. They looked at the
words and didn’t know what the message said. The queen heard all kinds of
noise coming from the banquet hall and found out what happened. She came
before the king and said, “O king live forever! Don’t be
alarmed! Don’t look so pale! There is a man in your kingdom that has
the Spirit of the Holy God. In the days of your grandfather,
Nebuchadnezzar made him his top wise man because he had such knowledge and
understanding and also the ability to interpret dreams and explain
riddles. You should call for this Daniel to help you with this problem.”

Daniel was
brought before Belshazzar. He
offered Daniel the same reward that he offered to his wise men.Daniel
wasn’t interested in the king’s reward and he told him that he could keep his
gifts, but he agreed to read the writing on the wall and tell him what it meant.

First, Daniel reminded Belshazzar that at one time Nebuchadnezzar also became full of pride and was punished by God, and that it wasn't until he turned away from his pride that God gave back the kingdom to him.

Daniel looked
at Belshazzar and said, “You are his grandson. You know all about this and yet you
have become very prideful. You have set yourself up against the Lord of
Heaven...That is why He sent this writing on the wall.”

Daniel said,
“This is what the message means: God has measured your life and you do not
meet His standards, so your kingdom will be taken away from you and given to
someone else.”

Remember at
the beginning of our story I told you that Belshazzar felt confident no one
could penetrate the large walls surrounding Babylon? Well, the river that
brought water into their city had to come from outside the walls. The enemy
soldiers outside the walls dug a trench that drained the river water into a
lake so the water was turned away from the city, then they entered the walls of
Babylon through the dry riverbed.

That very
night after Daniel gave God’s message to the king, the enemies entered Babylon
and took over Belshazzar’s kingdom. Belshazzar was killed and a new king
reigned in Babylon. God punished Belshazzar for his sin against Him.

Sin brings
all of us down. None of us have measured up to God’s standards because, “All
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” God
wants us to turn away from our sin so our lives will be a true reflection of
Jesus to others. He wants others to know that Jesus is real and they can
come to Him to be saved too. Let’s make it our goal to live our lives to
honor God by living a life that pleases Him and shows others how great He is.

1: 24-25
“All flesh is as grass,
And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
The grass withers,
And its flower falls away,
But the word of the Lord endures forever.”
Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.

2:15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men—

3:1-2 Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives, when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear.

3:7 Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.

4:7-8 But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.

1:5-7 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.

1:16 For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.

3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

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About Me

Cheryl C. Malandrinos is a lifelong resident of Western Mass and an award-winning REALTOR® with Real Living Realty Professionals. Her background in management, financial services, and social media marketing served as an excellent foundation for her real estate career.
Ms. Malandrinos is also a freelance writer, children’s author, editor and blogger. A 2005 graduate of Long Ridge Writers Group, she writes articles about time management and organization. She is the author of Little Shepherd, A Christmas Kindness, Macaroni and Cheese for Thanksgiving, and the upcoming Amos Faces His Bully. She has edited numerous manuscripts in a variety of genres and ghostwritten a Christian chapter book.
Above all, Cheryl is an imperfect Christian wife and mother doing her best and hoping she makes a difference.